This year marks the 500th anniversary of the publication of the first Estonian-language book. VEMU is helping to bring the celebrations of “Estonian Book Year” to Estonian communities abroad with a carpet embroidery project. So far, the carpet has already been embroidered by community members at the Estonian Music Week village party in Toronto, and at Seedrioru children’s camp midsummer festival. 

The next opportunities to embroider the carpet will be at Kotkajärve Forest University on August 23-25, at Oktoberfest at the Latvian Cultural Centre, and then at the VEMU book fair and other events in Toronto. All other Canadian communities are welcome to participate in the embroidery. If you are interested, please contact us! (piret.noorhani@vemu.ca)

Anyone with a needle can do embroidery! The images are pre-printed in color on the rug, and the necessary threads are included. Embroiderers must provide their own needles. You can find tutorials and instructions here.

The carpet will be embroidered until February, 2026. Then the pieces will travel back to Estonia to end the book year. There they will be sewn together into one long, almost 17-meter carpet, which will find its final home at VEMU. The twin carpet embroidered in Estonia will be deposited at the Estonian National Museum.

VEMU thanks the members of the RA (Book year) committee and everyone who has already contributed to the carpet project in various ways for their cooperation.